12 Films In 12 Months

We’re down to one week left in the Slow Mo Films contest so if you get a chance, head on over to SlowMoFilms.com and vote for “FINALIST #6 - ONE DOZEN EGGS”.  Remember, you can vote once per day per email, so head on over and rock the vote!!!

A few months back when I was working on the music video and featuring one-a-day on my Twitter feed, my friend Kerry sent me a video to check out.  Well, I slacked on posting it, but now it seems fitting to post it as I’m working on a western.  It’s the video for the song “Knights of Cydonia” by Muse and it’s a strange and awesome genre-mashing video featuring lazer-toting, kung-fu fighting cowboys…and that’s just the beginning.  Check it out:

I just found out that my first film of the 12 Films project, “Mystery Box“, has been accepted into the San Diego Film Festival!  It’s going to be part of the San Diego Shorts series and will be screened twice alongside several other short films from local filmmakers.  I’m seriously stoked!  This is the first time I’ve ever had a film shown in a festival so I have no idea what to expect.

The festival runs from September 25 - 28 down at the Gaslamp theater in downtown San Diego.  They’ll announce the film line-up and schedule at the beginning of September.  Event and day passes are already available for purchase, but individual film tickets (for instance, if you just wanted to come to see “Mystery Box” and the other San Diego shorts) won’t be on sale until September 15; and when they do go on sale, they’ll be $10.  For any info on the festival and to order tickets, check out their website here.

I’m planning on attending both screenings so if you come down, be sure to say hi.  I hope you to see you down there!

This last weekend I shot the footage for Film #8 of the year.  In terms of genre, this month I’m making a western!  Ever since I started this project, I’ve wanted to include a western at some point.  It’s a rich genre that is filled with classic films and performances.  The genre itself is laced with specific codes and conventions that are often used to explore themes like the taming of wilderness, honor, revenge, justice, and the definition of morality.

When AFI picked their top 10 westerns earlier this year, they chose some classic films like High Noon, Shane, and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. As I was writing this month’s film, I started by watching the showdown from High Noon to get inspired.  I also watched the fantastic showdowns from two classic spaghetti westerns (so named because they were produced by Italian studios) from Sergio Leone’s “Dollars Trilogy”: A Fistful of Dollars and The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly.  It definitely got me into a good frame of mind for writing a showdown.

For your own enjoyment, here’s the finale from The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly:

So apparently, you can now vote once per day per email (which I’m not sure you could do last weekend when the voting opened).  So even if you’ve already voted once, go back and throw another vote in there.

Vote for: “FINALIST 6 - ONE DOZEN EGGS”.

Go here to vote for me.

Thanks for all your help!

For more info on what all this voting stuff is about check out my earlier post here.

A little while back I entered an online contest where I had to submit a 15 second slow motion video.  Today they announced the 10 finalists and opened up voting to determine the winner.  I made the top ten and I need as many votes as I can get.

Vote for: “FINALIST 6 - ONE DOZEN EGGS”.

Go here to vote for me.

You can vote once per email per day.  After you vote, the voting system will send you a confirmation link in an email; click on that link and make sure your voice is heard!  The contest runs until August 31, so vote as much as you can.  Besides, every time you vote you get entered to win a Wii or an iPhone.  Bonus!

I’m trying to get the word out for votes so, if anyone’s so inclined, pass it on, post it on a blog, tell your mom, etc.  It would be great to win with all of your help!

Here’s film #7 of the 12 Films in 12 Months. It’s a summer action movie for the month of July: “The Pick-up”. Enjoy.

I’m still working through the sound design and musical score.  Even through there isn’t much dialogue in the film this month, there’s still a lot of sound work to be done.  Then, it’s on to color correcting and titles.  I don’t expect those two will take too much time.  I’m hoping to have it up by some point tomorrow (Sunday, August 3).

A little while back, there was a great post over at Mark Kennedy’s blog all about using geography well in action sequences.  He uses the scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark where Indiana Jones and Marion try to commandeer the Nazi plane as an example.  Here’s a brief excerpt as he sets up the importance of geography in action sequences:

Geography is an important but rarely used device that is the key to making any action sequence work. No action sequence will have any real tension to it unless we know exactly where everything is at all times: where the hero is in relation to his objective, how close or far away he is from his goal, what obstacles are at play and where they are in relation to the hero in the scene.

I tried to keep this in mind while writing and planning this month’s film.  It was far harder then I imagined it would be and I feel like I’m learning a lot re-reading Mark’s post having just shot an action sequence and now reflecting on that sequence as I cut the film.  I think I succeeded in some scenes and fell short in others.  I know at times during the pre-production and especially the production itself, I spent more time focusing on what action was going to be taking place and how we were going to shoot it in a way that the action is communicated then I did on how the locations and individual shots informed the audience as to where the protagonist was in space.  Knowing where he is in space (as the above quote mentions) is key to building a stronger tension within the sequence.  I feel like at times, that tension is a lot stronger then others and I think it directly relates to how the geography of the sequence was (or wasn’t) clearly set-up and communicated.

Now then, I’m not trying to knock this film before it’s finished and I’m not trying to say that it’s terrible and that you shouldn’t expect to enjoy it.  I’m actually pretty proud of it and can’t wait for it to be done so I can share it with you.  Rather, I was more just taking a moment to reflect on the film and the thought-process I took in planning and producing it (in terms of using geography as a story-telling tool); and look at it with a critical eye.

Film #7 is coming along well.  I’m sorry it’s not done already, but it will be soon.  I feel comfortable saying that I have picture-lock, so now it’s time to move on to sound.  The sound design on this film is going to be important.  I have some fun scenes and action sequences but right now when I watch it with nothing but unmixed natural sound, it’s still lacking in energy and cohesion.  There’s a reason why a lot of films nominated for Academy Awards in Sound Mixing and Sound Design tend to be more action-based (just look at last year’s winner in both categories, The Bourne Ultimatum).  That reason is that good sound design can make the most crazy, unimaginable visuals feel believable.  That believability makes it easier for the audience to become engrossed in the story and invested in the all that’s happening to the characters.

So really, what I’m shooting for is a strong sound design and a high-energy soundtrack to carry the audience through the action emotionally.  I don’t have a lot of time to record much foley (which is when you record sound effects separate from the natural sound of the shoot and match those effects to the footage) so I’ll be working a lot with the on-set natural sound and a sound effects library.